<philosophical terminology> the simple speech act of generating sounds that are linked together by grammatical conventions so as to say something meaningful. Among speakers of English, for example, "It is raining" performs the locutionary act of saying that it is raining, as "Grablistrod zetagflx dapu" would not. Recommended Reading: J. L. Austin, How to Do Things With Words, ed. by Marina Sbisa and J. O. Urmson (Harvard, 1975) and John R. Searle, Speech Acts (Cambridge, 1970).
[A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names]
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